Yesterday, KPMG announced that it will offer tax offsets to its same-sex employees for the additional federal and state tax costs incurred when they pay for medical benefits for their same-sex domestic partners.
Here's how it works: Basically, KPMG employees who pay for medical and dental benefits for same-sex partners who do not qualify as a spouse or dependent under federal law will receive a credit at the end of the year funded by KPMG.
KPMG is the second major public accounting firm to implement this type of program (Ernst & Young was the first last month).
Back in October, I wrote an article entitled, Separate is Not Equal: Same-Sex Couples Should Be Entitled to Federal Tax Benefits. That article summarizes the disparate tax treatment afforded to same-sex couples and briefly explains why I believe this disparate treatment violates the First Amendment (among other provisions of the U.S. Constitution - e.g., Equal Protection Clause, Due Process Clause).
The recent initiatives by KPMG and Ernst & Young demonstrate that the accounting industry recognizes the injustice of subjecting same-sex couples to increased tax burdens on the basis of their sexual orientation. When will the government recognize this?
I've said it before, and I'll say it again, the opposition to same-sex marriage is a predominantly religious one. As such, it has no place in the law or politics. To the contrary, this type of religious entanglement is inconsistent with some of the core values upon which this Nation was founded (namely, anti-establishment of religion and free exercise of religion).
As a final note, it is interesting to note the similarities between today's ban on same-sex marriage and the historical ban on interracial marriages. Consider the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case of Loving v. Virginia as an example. That case involved the prosecution of a Virginia couple for violation of a Virginia statute which prohibited interracial marriages.
In support of their conviction, the Virginia judge wrote the following: "Almighty God created the races white, black, malay, and red, and he placed them on separate continents. . . . The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix."
Right about now, you're probably asking yourself how someone could be so ignorant. I don't understand either. Maybe we should ask the government. After all, current federal law bans same-sex marriage on the same caliber of logic.
